The 4th of July

Overcoming 328 Years of State Compelled Racism, Discrimination, and Segregation – in Under 50 Years

By Nic Rangel Esq., M.P.A..

Every July Americans are presented with an opportunity to reflect and commemorate the Declaration of Independence, an affirmation of American values; of freedom, equality, and justice. Many people also take this moment as an opportunity to reflect on the legacy of slavery in America. I attended an oration/ lecture event at The Stephen and Harriet Myers Residence Building[1] on Livingston St., in Albany, N.Y. During this event speakers revisited a speech given in Rochester, N.Y. in 1852 titled “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro”[2] in which Mr. Frederick Douglass asked the audience “What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?” One of the speakers reminded us that the very document that Independence Day commemorates, the Declaration of Independence (1776) states within its preamble that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”[3] But on that day in 1852 millions of men, women, and children were not free to exercise these so called inalienable rights to life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness because they were, instead, slaves.

During the event I started reviewing a little America history in my mind, and I want to recap that timeline here. The first slave in the colonies was recognized in 1654, and the first laws governing slaves were adopted in 1705 (Virginia’s “Slave Codes”)[4]. The Declaration of Independence was drafted in 1776[5], and the Constitution of the United States was drafted in 1787[6]. The common law decision abolishing slavery in Great Britain in 1772[7] did not apply to the colonies but the international slave trade finally ended in 1808[8]. Domestic slave trading and ownership did not end until the adoption and ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in 1865[9]. The slave population peaked at four (4) million in 1860 before it was abolished.

States largely ignored the 15th Amendment to the Constitution (1870) and instead instituted myriad of barriers to prevent blacks from voting called Jim Crow laws. Additionally, much of this country legally segregated black communities in all arenas of public life through the “separate but equal” doctrine[10]. In some ways Jim Crow laws were the result of backlash for the federal civil rights protections enacted during the reconstruction period after the Civil War, and replaced the “Black Codes” that has existed between 1800 and 1866[11]. The result of Jim Crow was the dramatic extensive disenfranchisement of black Americans. In 1910 as few as .5 % of eligible black men were registered to vote in some districts. Not a single black American cast a vote in North Carolina between 1896 and 1904. State compelled segregation and racial discrimination persisted until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Jim Crow barriers to voting were not eliminated until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965- almost 100 years after the adoption of the 15th Amendment. By some accounts a few public schools in America held out until the mid-70s before desegregating and in 1982 SCOTUS finally rejected tax exemptions for private schools that discriminate based on race. The New Jim Crow[12] now prevents millions of blacks from exercising the very rights won during the Civil Rights Movement through mass imprisonment and felony convictions- but this is a topic for another blog.

The point to this history recap is to illustrate an important timeline. Slavery began in 1654, and ended in 1865; state compelled segregation and racial discrimination then continued under the laws of this country until 1964; and legally enforceable institutional discrimination continued until 1982 (but the new Jim Crow system continues to disenfranchise millions of black Americans). That is 328 years of state compelled racism, segregation, and discrimination denying human and civil rights to millions of people of color.

Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act required approval by the Department of Justice of any changes, no matter how minor, in voting procedures in certain specific voting districts. Those districts were chosen according to a formula found in Section 4 of the act, which identified the voting districts with the most extreme voter disenfranchisement of blacks.

A recent decision by SCOTUS gutted that Act of Section 4 because the majority believes that we have overcome 328 years of state compelled racism in just 48 years of federally enforced voting rights such that congressional oversight of voting procedures in these historically discriminatory districts is no longer necessary. The majority opinion argued that voting fairness and equality had improved so much that there is no longer any justification for the use of the Section 4 formula in identifying districts that continue to seek to erode access to voting to black Americans, and that if there is justification Congress should have more clearly relied on that data in 2006 when it renewed that section.[13] In short the Justices favor states’ rights in election processes over federal level enforcement of fair and equal voting rights, even when the result of such a preference is the disenfranchisement of black voters.

In light of these developments in the Supreme Court, the well documented re-segregation of schools, the mass incarceration of black Americans, and persistence of black voter disenfranchisement, I think we should consider asking “What, to black Americans, is the 4th of July today?”

7 Responses

Nic, I first really heard Frederick Douglass’ “What to the slave is the Fourth of July?” speech during a local staged reading of Howard Zinn’s voices from a People’s History of the United States. It’s so powerful when spoken aloud.

Your article makes it clear that the struggle for equal rights for African Americans is still very much ongoing. I appreciate the way you illustrated the resistance and backlash to changes that on the surface seemed mandated by laws. Your bibliography was helpful as well.

I agree with your observations that the current criminal justice system and the recent gutting of the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court indicates that the same questions about the lack of equal access and equal justice remain today.

They’re highly exacerbated by the patchwork of State laws as opposed to clear Federal protections of rights such as the ability to vote and the ability to be treated fairly by law enforcement personnel and by the courts themselves.

The recent verdict in the Trayvon Martin death raises these questions anew. But to return to one of the books that you’ve referenced, and which I’ve read, Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow highlights the tremendous problem of racial profiling that affects young black men and women.
Just today Stephen Gottlieb, aired a commentary where he referenced hearing Michelle Alexander on Alternative Radio. His comments are well worth listening to or reading a transcript of. You can find them at this link:

…Alexander’s case revolves around these issues:
Racial profiling draws African-Americans into the criminal system with little regard to their behavior. In a vicious circle, racial profiling generates criminal records which are then used to justify more racial profiling. The numbers are far out of proportion to African-American participation in crime or any of the other negative stereotypes people have. […]

…Civil liberties are about keeping the authorities from targeting any of us because of looks, color, faith, background, politics or anything but participation in a crime. That’s what a large part of the Bill of Rights is about – to protect us from abuse by authorities.

Otherwise, we’re at risk of being shaken down, humiliated or framed. That happens much too often in many parts of the world. As many lawyers know, and as Michelle Alexander has brilliantly demonstrated, it happens much more in this country than we want to believe. […]

Yes, you point out something that is easily missed: As opportunities open up for some African Americans,
hose same opportunities are denied other African Americans. Today, I stumbled across a Huffington Post piece by a John W. Whitehead who points out some facts that are hard to swallow but apparently very true. Amnesty International has consistently noted that the United States has the highest rate of incarceration of any country. We all are aware that a high percent of African Americans are incarcerated — despite the decline in violent crimes which would suggest there should be fewer in prison.

I think that Mr. Whitehead’s words clearly underlines that some African Americans have yet to experience the freedoms that our country’s July 4th celebration incoporates. Check this out:

Maureen, I agree that the for profit Prison Industrial complex provides more pressure for arresting people and detaining them for long periods of time for non-violent crimes or sometimes no crimes at all. Taken to its extreme there was that case of the corrupt judge who was sentencing young students to a juvenile detention facility in exchange for money.

Thanks for the link to the article by John Whitehead in which he also points out that those same for profit privatized prisons increase the imprisonment of immigrants as well as other people of color.

If, on the 4th, we celebrated the birthdays of the long list of black government officials at the highest levels of government, rather than our freedom, then we could call attention to the lack of black government officials at the highest levels of government. The racists who elected, or appointed and confirmed, the black government officials previously listed, must learn that, someday, we will have black people at the highest levels of government, maybe even President.